


slightly wilted, barely blossomed

by utuyoh



Category: NU'EST
Genre: (pls pretend coding works like that), Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Hackers, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Conflicted Characters, Gen, MacGuffins, Minor Character Death, OT5 Friendship, Poor Life Choices, Saving the World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23134840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/utuyoh/pseuds/utuyoh
Summary: Permanently sad gangsters are trying to get themselves out of a shitty situation they have stuck in. Unfortunately, their friends aren’t really their friends and their enemies aren’t really their enemies.(with the involvement of a mighty code placed on a flash drive)
Relationships: Choi Minki | Ren & Aaron Kwak | Aron & Hwang Minhyun & Kim Jonghyun | JR & Kang Dongho | Baekho, Kang Dongho | Baekho & Zhou Jie Qiong | Kyulkyun, Kim Jonghyun | JR & Lee Taeyong
Kudos: 7
Collections: Spring Blessings (Nu'est 8th Anniversary Fic Fest)





	slightly wilted, barely blossomed

GOODBYE

 _/play/_  
"I get why you are here and what you want. And I have something more valuable to offer instead."

"How come something is more valuable than your death, Princess?" 

"The Code of Seven Siblings. You know what it can do. There's one-seventh right here, on the flash drive. I'm willing to share."

"Hah. Isn’t it basically useless?"

"It’s useless, unless the crutches are coded."

"I appreciate your assistance. But, Princess, only I know what I want. You? You don't."

"What…?"

"The only way out is to join me, not just give out outdated crap."  
_/stop/_

_/play/_  
"Girl, just take it and go! What are you doing!?"

"Saying goodbye"

"You shot him! He is dead!"

"Don't you think it's amusing, Eunwoo? Han Sung Soo, the head of The Pleiades, laying right here and no one cares?"

"And no one will. For at least ten minutes. Get going."  
_/stop/_

RELATIVITY 

_two years ago_  
This is how they stand in front of each other. Their closeness and odd kinship vanish. The moment their gazes meet lasts an eternity. None of them considers what is happening in the world outside. They get stuck. There's a void of under-healed hurts and under-voiced apologies. Slightly wilted and barely blossomed are craving for forever to part ways. 

Two lines of former brothers are by the side of the dead.

Minki looks at Seungkwan as the boy forces an awkward smile. Minki answers with the same one but it's just not as fresh. A lot can change during one mimic illusion. A lot can change in one night.

Someone has killed the boss. It turns out there's nothing else that bonds them. How sad.

They may shoot each other, eliminate remaining with words, but naive generosity lets them be still. It lets them leave the gravest enemy rising from the ashes of a past friend unharmed.

It's a fatality of sorts. The calculated moves of Seungcheol and the cold eyes of Jihoon make Minki see it. Slightly wilted wilts, barely blossomed blossoms.

*  
Minki has not entertained himself with despair since long ago, although the moment is perfectly despairing. Minki wants to laugh so badly, but Lim Youngmin and his gang are seriously determined.

"There are just five of them! We have a chance!"

Minki looks at Minhyun, Minhyun squints. 

"A chance to die! They totally haven't brought a crowd with them," Dongho shouts. 

His words are devoid of passion, but there's no room to argue. This mess is going to be their final deed eventually. Sometimes Minki toys with the idea of their job being art. Brave and romantic rebellion. 

It is a blood bath all the damn time.

The opponents are making ground. Minki feels the wall of the warehouse next to his back. Why have they chosen that place by the way? He, Dongho, and Minhyun are hiding behind towers of mattresses, Aaron is meandering; Jonghyun is still undisclosed. Their success doesn’t go beyond that.

Lee Daehwi is somewhere near. Minki hears the voice, almost smells the gun’s ash, but the three of them have nothing to fight with. Daehwi lances first. Nice reaction and prideful anger. Minki remembers that very well. He was like that a long time ago. 

Lee Daehwi is a small and cute kid. He would be even cuter when not trying to break Minki’s ribs. 

Minki tries to keep up. A knife to a knife, eyes to eyes, determination to hope, a moment of hesitation to a moment of fear. He is captured by forgotten meaningfulness, then a scream breaks out. It’s either Aaron, Dongho, Minhyun, Minki himself. He doesn’t know. Everything is turning into a mess. He knows only that Jonghyun sings for everyone to retreat.

Minki knocks against a corpse. Probably. A freaking blood bath all the damn time. Right behind him, Minhyun and Dongho are carrying injured Aaron. At least they are not arguing.

It seems like Lim Youngmin has lost them. Detailed emergency route, yeah, that’s why they have chosen that place. Jonghyun is in the car and looks judgmentally, but still gives up the driver seat to Dongho. 

They don’t go to the base. The base is sacred, a symbol of talent, a ghost of parted ways and gloss of past glory. Just a flat with all the equipments. No way they would risk to give it away.

Dongho drives to Minhyun’s place. 

*  
When Aaron returns to the conscious world, it's a thick night outside Minhyun’s tiny flat. Minki caresses Aaron’s hair. Somewhere on the other side of the city, his dogs are longing for him to return. The injury is troublesome, by any means not seriously dangerous. Aaron almost got his knee shot. But only almost.

They are a gang of chosen losers. How has fate even gathered them like that?

It’s a pity he has let the allure of not right art to excite him. Or not art at all. And not allure. 

Minki imagines there is no tons of medicines, imagines it’s just a chill, friendly hang out. He imagines there has been no unfavourable death purring in his ears.

Jonghyun is in his usual corner, physically and mentally. He is digging up something on his phone. Their grand slip-up was orchestrated to some extent. No one wants to guess by whom. Jonghyun is obligated to. The whole mood is saddening.

Sometimes Minki hopes there will be a day where they can get through it all, but that day of his dreams just keeps going further and further into the future. A year by each second. 

At the mourning, the pains of the body are soothed, the pains of the soul aren't. Aaron goes to the base with the gang anyway. Once they enter, it’s brutally clear – the base has suffered an attack more severe than the one they have got through.

They have kept the base safe and pristine, feared to let anyone in, and now it’s in tatters. Ruins of ancient empires are majestic, but these ruins are just depressing.

The flat – two rooms, system units, a refrigerator, ramen boxes, and beer cans – is turned upside down. Minki feels sorry for his collection. Have they been distracted on purpose? Hasn’t Lim Youngmin tried to eliminate them out of idle curiosity? Has he? What a surprise. They were looking for something, but what? The gang usually has nothing to take from. From the very start, they haven’t worked much in the field. Hackers, not sharp-toothed gangsters. 

Aaron spreads over thea sofa, but Minki still finds a place for himself. This is’s his shuttered flat, he does what he wants. Minhyun skips over books. What was there? Something important? Minki doesn’t know. Dongho roots about in the safe. It’s better not to look at him after this ultimate failure. But Minki does anyway, he knows his magic – no one is afraid to weep on his chest. Jonghyun texts, calls, and swears with a composed face. So, they have been robbed. For some reason – an easy task, but seemingly personal. 

The right thing is to check the server system. Minki gets up., Aaron doesn’t react much, just raises his head.

“I think I have an idea”

*  
It takes just one day for Fu Long Fei to arrive; he is giddy and cautious. Probably, not the reunion of his dreams. Minki wonders why that guy is even here. Long Fei is old now, they are adult – but it’s not a matter of age. There are awkward shadows of the wife and the kid in his every phrase. A crumpled reunion in the dribble.

Minki frowns and turns up his collar. Dongho seems comfortable with the weather. They hold hands much like in the past, then part. The airport is empty.  
At the base, Long Fei sits down and tells them his plan all the way. They all are not so fast to believe him. What a unity.  
“I get it you are wary,” Long Fei speaks. 

Aaron holds his shoulder. They are wary about themselves too. Who will be the first to tear up? And then Jason shows the hard drive, and everything goes down.

Jonghyun has it too. Useless symbol, lucky charm of The Pleiades that hasn’t brought any luck. It seems the boss has given Jason the one and has never taken back. This plastic stick plays with hearts, manipulates them all too well. Aims have never been reached, close people have walked away. The boss trusted and that makes them trust too, out of desperate loyalty and grief.

It’s a crappy plan. They have nothing else.

HIS FINGER SLIPPED

Long Fei says, he was their agent. Long Fei says they have forgotten about the warehouse, it’s okay. Long Fei says, there will be no problems. Long Fei says, if he gets caught, they will be doomed.

They easily decide who enters the construction site and who stays to watch. 

Dongho has gone silent after ten minutes into the mission. Minhyun sits still in the car; Long Fei is restless. Minhyun doesn't look at him, he takes a pen from his pocket and writes down his shitty poetry on the backside of his arm. As usual. He is not going to tell anyone. Dongho says he has the soul of a poet. He has the soul of a coward. The soul of fears. Now it's a noble fear of losing a friend. Minhyun likes that to some extent.

He doesn't like the sound of shooting.

Minhyun and Long Fei run to the construction site. Shooting is still heard. Only at the entrance, Minhyun sees that he has been left alone. Long Fei has run away in the opposite direction, there is no sight of him. Why is he so fast? Minhyun isn’t going to hunt him down. They are in too much trouble right now.  
Minki jumps from the window on the second floor, far away from the storage they have aimed for. He is a wrath angel coming down to Earth to punish misdeeds and bullets are his wings. Landing is tough for Minki, who is screeching and wheezing, but then he stands up like it was nothing. Fearsome and beautiful.  
He passes a gun to Minhyun.

“We fucked up, we fucked up so much,” he whispers.

Five men with threatening build chase Minki; Minhyun has no time to look closer. They get in the car quickly, Minki throws a bag of stolen goods to the back seat aggressively. Rage suits him too much. It’s the first time they are in the middle of a high-speed chase. Minhyun wonders if the rest of his life is going to be one of the one of stereotyped crime drama. He liked his net runner’s being.

Minhyun scorches trying not to get Minki falling out off the window. Minki shoots straight, he has good eyes. It helps, but not really – gangsters are still at their heels. Minhyun is afraid of what is going on with Jonghyun and Dongho. Honestly, there’s no time and strength in him to be afraid properly.  
The bag is rattling.

When they lose the tail, Minki gets out and runs with their new belongings. Minhyun hopes he will do his thing. The luckiest one. Minhyun drives back to the warehouse. Jonghyun looks terrible and there is no sight of Dongho.

It was the crappiest plan.

*  
A hotel room has a calming effect on Minhyun, he breaths in and out trying not to think too much. Where are so many things they could do and didn’t do? Aaron has stayed in Seoul, they still have to tell him. No one knows there is Fu Long Fei. Minki sits next to him to hold hands. Childish. Minhyun will thank him later.  
Jonghyun is quiet and furious, ruthless to himself. He blames and punishes without anyone’s knowledge, all in his head. No one to interrupt, no one to trespass. What is there to help him? Minhyun sighs. The rabbit hole may be cruel. 

Jonghyun’s voice sounds hoarse and bitter. He tells his thoughts like he punches the wall. So, the theory is that those guys had been waiting for them. But was Long Fei aware of it?

*  
_/play/_  
“Agent, any knowledge has its weight. Understandably, sometimes you would think it’s unbearable. That’s why the Special Department isn’t for everyone.”

“Do you mean not everyone is ready to play humans like toys?”

“The main value of Special Department is the nation’s safety. Don’t you know, Agent?”

“Oh, believe me, I know a lot.”  
_/stop/_

/play/  
“What do you have about the deserter agent?”

“He has our complete base. According to information from the field, The Agent has been preparing an operation since long ago. Now it’s on a culmination stage. That will make him the dominant element of a criminal scene in the region. We still don’t know what the trigger is.”  
_/stop/_

DELIVERY MAN

Recent days have been tough for Aaron. He walks, takes things without purpose, then his mind is flooded with not-so-happy thoughts. No news from Jonghyun. He doesn't want to cause worry, but it works the opposite way. When will the leader understand?

Aaron doesn't know what is going on, but he knows Fu Long Fei is back in Seoul.

He catches the bastard near his home. His knee is acting up, but Fu Long Fei is obviously well forgotten about that part of a criminal life. Aaron has an advantage for once.

Fu Long Fei stutters as he’s being pinned to the wall.

“You bastard,” Aaron whispers.

“I can explain,” Long Fei whispers too.

“What can you explain!?”

And he explains, son of a bitch. Aaron doesn’t know how to believe or confront. His brothers are in uncertainty, Fu Long Fei has a daughter and wife to care for. So much to fight about. They are on quicksand, not expecting mutual agreement.

Seven years ago, Fu Long Fei became an unexpected addition to the team. He had been much older and did not speak Korean well. He was like a long-lost uncle that came back to his home, and no one knew him but he was awkwardly happy. Aaron had missed the grand greeting or they hadn't had one, but the two of them got attached to the hip easily, both, but strictly professional. 

Now Fu Long Fei is a mailman to deliver bad news.

He tells the long story of his criminal career that Aaron has no interest to bear. A few rival gangs, some partners of their very much dead boss. Some resources and places no one remembers of but him. In the end, Fu Long Fei knows too much for his safety – some people just really badly want to talk to him. And they had waited for him in that place. And they have taken Dongho. By mistake.

“I'll help,” Long Fei pleads.

“How?”

“I just can't show up there, but someone I know can. I would prefer for him to remain a secret.”  
The whole Pleiades has been built on secrets. Then crashed. Aaron has had enough; he demands a reveal. He will accept anything.

“Jun.”

Maybe not anything. Aaron has been sick of that criminal dream team a long time ago, that family where siblings had nothing in common but bruises of the past. 

*  
Junhui’s eyes are smiling. Why? Aaron is not here for a smile. They haven't seen each other for years that have passed in split second. Wasn't Junhui a teenager way back when? Aaron doesn’t want that meeting, but he's on the verge. 

Long Fei watches them both precisely. Is he afraid of their bond that have sunk into the depth of the unforgiven? Is he afraid that they will scream their injuries out? 

Junhui happily declares, “I'm so happy to see you alive and well.”

“Mutual,” Aaron answers with a growing impatience. 

“You look so good even after all those unfortunate coincidences.”

“God, Junhui, please,” Fu Long Fei growls.

Junhui shuts up for mere seconds, then goes on and on about what good friends he and Fu Long Fei are. Aaron feels how the precious time is being wasted for nothing without concern. 

TIGER IN A CAGE

 _three years ago_  
They are both silents. Jieqiong doesn’t laugh, he doesn’t laugh too. They haven't needed words before. Jieqiong’s sigh, glance, and broken nail were enough for Dongho to understand her. The silence has been surreal and full of voice, but it is empty now. A confusing story, a retelling of their mixed-up lives up to this very second can fit in it. And they? They have nothing to say. Understanding doesn’t mean anything, this Dongho and this Jieqiong are strangers. She knows it, he knows it. They’re not going to meet again. 

A dim lamp is blinking at the bus stop. Dongho thinks this restlessness is a mere inconvenience to an unavoidable doom. He would be this restless too in the face of it. He doesn’t have a skill not to. 

Jieqiong’s taxi stops three meters away. She gets in and waves goodbye. 

*  
The final act, Dongho wouldn't get out. He should have stopped before. Nothing has been on their side, but he had stubbornly tried. How much determination does it take to continue? He has had enough. How much bravery does it take to walk away and start anew? It hadn't been there ever. 

Most of the time, Dongho doesn’t really get where he is and what those guys want from him. They have been ignoring him at best since it has become clear he's not Fu Long Fei. Maybe the guys have other mistakes to cover. Only one lanky boy circles around him, Dongho slightly adores him. They chat in a mad mixture of English, Korean, and Mandarin. Dongho doesn’t consider himself an expert in any field, but the fidgety kid is satisfied. 

One day she comes. 

Then she comes again and doesn’t just watches – she grunts. She is a corpse that has been revived, a dream made to live, a ghost that should have rested in peace and oblivion,. aA friend he has never been able to truly let go. She smiles, never laughs. Dongho guesses that now she knows her laugh is poison, the elusive lightness of being. Now she's a sharpened weapon – she would blink and Dongho would see that girl he has left at the bus stop. 

Two days passed. Jieqiong asks how he is doing. Dongho asks who the boy he speaks too much with is. Jieqiong grunts. 

“Boss's son.”

Dongho knows that that's a very different boss, not their dead boss. Jieqiong has had that very different boss for a long time, had been self-employed for longer. Does she understand what game she is playing? Most likely? She does. She is someone of another kind. 

Everything is part of her plan, but the plan leads to a whirlpool. 

Dongho hears screaming and fighting. What is going on with that damned gang? 

“Why am I still here and alive?”

Jieqiong shrugs.

“The kid likes you.”

For a minute, it’s silent.

“Wonder what is it? They are searching for a rat.” She gets closer.

Her hand is at the nape of his neck, plays with a thin chain. The flash drive hangs on it. Fu Long Fei has given out his as a sign of loyalty. What a cruel guy. 

Dongho and Jieqiong both value that plastic piece too much, they had been made to.

“A rat?” 

Jieqiong weighs the flash drive and laughs briefly. 

“Me. They won’t find anything. Not me nor this.” She tears the chain off and walks out.

*  
For an hour and a half, Dongho has been trying not to get killed in a completely unfamiliar manor. He circles around the place for hints of escape but sees nothing. Just horror and massacre. Then, he notices Junhui and Minghao. Wicked.

“It’s a takeover, pal,” Minghao greets him.

Dongho stays silenced by the unexpected reunion. 

“Princess wants blood. She will slay everyone,” Junhui says with dreamy eyes. Wicked.

Dongho follows them through the mansion without a second thought; he is a creature of habit. Even if it’s a long-forgotten bad habit. 

The grand hall is a scene of nightmare, Dongho has never managed to imagine something that bizarre. The gangster that kept him imprisoned are being killed one by one by the unstoppable force of Jieqiong’s subordinates and she is watching it like a very real blood-thirsty princess. She prospers, dances between bodies; dead and alive.

“Good evening, Princess. Need any help?” Junhui bows slightly.

No answer. Dongho can’t tear his gaze away from her fierce figure. For how long exactly has she been planning this takeover?

“So, we take that pal with us?” Junhui insists.

Jieqiong gives them a once-over.

“Take him. And don’t leave the kid!”

*  
On the way, Dongho mutters, hoping both Junhui and Minghao hear, “Are you here for her?”

They hear.

“Nope,” Minghao states with a blank face.

Junhui smirks.

“I’ll tell you a secret. Princess works with The Agent. Russian roulette, you know. And she has lost. Forget about her and never try to find her again.” 

He leans closer and Dongho can’t tell what he doesn’t like more: those antics of him or the bitter truth.

ONE SHOT, ONE KILLED

A bench is illuminated by the sun like it is a day from a different world; a pleasant world where with lucky coincidence everything had happened differently. Agent TY looks at him with unease, Jonghyun smiles. He knows the rules and doesn't blame the agent. 

Golden boy, the best agent of the huge government's institution and he, Jonghyun, the hacker, hands full of problems. They are not equal in terms of the game, but Jonghyun still thinks they are too similar.

He likes to imagine they are sitting here as friends, that could go on study dates or shooter games together.

But they aren't. They would be in that bright world with sunbathed benches.

*  
This is how they stand in front of each other. They stand like there’s an edge of millennia that has separated them before irreconcilable differences have done the same. They haven’t dared to meet again, but here they are. Slightly wilted and barely blossomed.

Jonghyun slowly takes off a chain with the hard drive, puts it on the table, as near the edge as he can. Seungcheol does the same. They don’t look at each other.  
“The agent is a threat to everyone here. He has an advantage of all-mightiness,” Kye Bumjoo starts.

Dramatic? A little bit. They are all conscious about mysterious letters from The Agent. Only that makes them keep themselves calm in the presence of each other. Jonghyun understands that they need to paint their situation extravagantly: cooperation is tough.

There are Sungyeon and Yewon by the left and right of Bumjoo. They look as childish and grim as Jonghyun remembers them.  
“Well, we certainly do have chances. Unity is the key,” Yewon says as Sungyeon nods.

“Has anyone ever wondered what The Agent wants?” the shadow in the corner shifts. Im Jinah. A ghost of voice that makes them shiver. The Pleiades have had secrets, play-pretended sense of closeness and unconditional force that was Im Jinah.

“Flash drives,” Jihoon spits.

“Flash drives that were forbidden to touch... The code that is so outdated it's criminal,” Minki smiles. Jonghyun sees through it easily. 

Then, finally Seungcheol asks the question, “Has someone coded the crutches?”

“The Agent cannot use the code unless he has all parts of it. With crutches or not. But even with all parts, crutches are essential.” Im Jinah shifts on her chair. Does she even believe in a good outcome?

“Collectively, we have four parts. The Agent has less,” Bumjoo assures. 

“The one who has coded the thing should be found,” Dongho says. 

Jonghyun has some thoughts. Who has seen the code?

JUDGEMENT 

_/play/_  
“I can’t believe it, Nayoung. That was the rule, we all followed the rules.”

“Sadly, we had a lot of free time.”

“Tell. Me. All. You. Know.”

“I know nothing. Obviously, a girl of mine has seen the code and fixed it. Maybe only our part, maybe the whole thing.”

“Who?”

“I think she is still in the field. But it’s not Yewon or Sungyeon, of course”

“And not Jieqiong…”

“When did you see her? Where? Jonghyun?”  
_/stop/_

Jiyoung rewinds the tape. The buzzing in her ears makes the voices unrecognizable, but she remembers them. These kids. They were kids. Only at the start. Talented youth in appearance, they were taught to be tough by the passing years. The Pleiades should have known. Probably, they have needed to tell more, to trust more.

There were seven of them, seven of Pleiades: Soyoung, Bekah, Jooyeon, Jungah, Sungsoo, Dambi, and her, Kahi – worthy, as they thought, the place by the stars. Young, bored, and wicked, they made their own gang. The seven coded a thing that possessed the mighty they had never bear to articulate. The test of its power made them all afraid and they did every possible thing to make the unbelievable fairytale of its existence, too proud and ignorant to eliminate any trace of the code. Time passed - a gang turned into a syndicate; the weight of unruly years made the code insignificant. Harmless. She has thought. All the time the Special Department was after their steps but that was not a problem, nothing was a problem until the syndicate itself has become one. Some of Pleiades have left, a few stayed. the towers of secrets crashed on its weight. Now one of them is dead, others are useless and their kids, their delicate birds with steel talons, are on each other’s throats. 

Jiyoung stands and goes to meet her husband, kisses her little daughter on the way. This day will die soon. Mistakes of today blend with mistakes of the past and no one knows what will stop the world from falling apart.

**Author's Note:**

> in greek mythology "the pleiades" was used for the seven divine sisters, they were thought to have been translated to the night sky
> 
> based on prompt 122


End file.
